Lonely Hearts At Night
by Useful Oxymoron
Summary: Bellatrix Black is a famous love doctor on the wizarding wireless, but is quite unlucky in love herself. Will her luck finally change when she's in need of a new audio engineer to help her with the show? Bellamione, heavy AU, one-shot.


Based on a story prompt by Appended: 'Bellatrix as a "Love Doctor" on the wizard radio.' Heavily AU, not related to my other Bellamione stories. One-shot. Hope you like it.

* * *

**Lonely Hearts At Night**

A Bellamione Story

Bellatrix adjusted the headphones, as usually struggling to get it to fit properly over her curly black mane. She should really stop taking it off during the musical segments, but after the first two hours of the show, it was a blessed a relief to be rid of them for just a few minutes. Unfortunately, for radio work they were pretty much a necessity.

She bent the microphone forward, getting reading for another session of callers while the obscure muggle song her audio engineer had dug up was about to finish off. It was a bit more, well, active and louder than the usual music they played, but the rhythm was quite nice and the singer quite charming. She'd have to play it more often now that it was part of the library.

She took a moment to sip from a cup of honeyed tea to get her throat ready for that husky radio voice she was famous for.

In this small studio there was barely room for herself and her audio engineer Paul to sit in; one would think that the most popular late night show of the Wizarding Wireless would get a better working space. Granted most of the space was used for the equipment and the music collection, but still.

The rotund bearded man who was her audio engineer held up two fingers, signifying that he had two callers on the floo-line on hold and handed her two cards containing their particulars. Bellatrix gave him a nod and he quickly held up three fingers, starting the countdown. The sound wound down as Paul finger-count went down from three to none. Regular as clockwork, the red light on the microphone turned on.

"Aaaaand, we're back, my lovesomes," Bellatrix spoke in the microphone. "I hope you enjoyed that song, all the way from muggle Japan. I Wish That You Were Near indeed, my lovesomes. You're listening, as always, to Lonely Hearts At Night, the show where everything is about love. Love lost, love gained and love yearned for. With the witching hour fast approaching, we're getting ready to call it a night, but we still have plenty of time for the last two callers of the day. Our first caller is 'Withdrawn Potion-Master'. Welcome to the show, lovesome. You have a question concerning your love-life?"

"... _obviously_..." sounded an annoyed drawl from a deep resonating voice.

"Well," said Bellatrix, ignoring the drawl. "It says here on the card you have an interest in a recent divorcee. A rather messy divorce, I understand."

"_Indeed,_" sounded the deep resonating voice. "_The poor woman finally had the brains to let go of her rotter of a husband. That man never deserved her to begin with!_"

"Right, right, right," Bellatrix interrupted. "Let's stop it there. Dear listeners, we all know how painful love-triangles can be, but let's keep it civil, shall we?"

"_Fine!_" sighed the deep resonating voice. "_Point being, I want to be there her for her, but, well, I'm not exactly well-versed in matters of the heart. That is why I am... forced to ask for advice._"

The voice sounded as if it was actually physically painful for him to lower himself to call in for advice. That was fine, however: he wouldn't be the first. Plenty of proud men and women felt embarrassed to call in.

Bellatrix nodded. "Indeed? Well, thing to remember is that a divorce is akin to a mourning process. I have no doubt that your lady of interest is feeling hurt and confused right now. This is a very tricky situation to be in. You don't want to come on too strongly because that might scare her off. Also, you don't want to end up becoming the rebound guy. You need gauge the situation and time just right."

"_What do you suggest?_"

"Be there for her. As a friend," said Bellatrix as she read the card. "If even half of the things written on this card are true, she can probably use a friend right about now. Be there for her, but let her make the first move. Let her decide when she's ready. And when she does, you will seal the deal by telling her how you feel."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. "_That... makes sense_," spoke the deep resonating voice. "_I've been waiting for years. I can wait a little while longer._"

"Good man," said Bellatrix.

"_Thank you_," replied the deep resonating voice, and the floo-line disconnected.

"Ah, another satisfied customer, my lovesomes," said Bellatrix. "Now, let's see to our last caller of the night. 'Slytherin-in-Leather-Trousers', you are on the show."

"_Ah, yes, uhm_," sounded the masked voice of man. This didn't surprise her, as more callers used magic to mask their identity. However, there was something rather distinctly familiar about this voice. Something she couldn't quite place yet.

"You mentioned martial problems?"

"_Hm, yes, it's my wife_," sighed the masked voice. "_She complains that I don't give our marriage enough attention. That I work too hard. But she fails to see that I work so hard for her sake. So that I can give her the prestige and the wealthy lifestyle she deserves._"

"Ahah," said Bellatrix. "First of all, I do commend you for wanting the best for your wife and family, but there's one thing to consider. What you think your wife deserves and what she actually wants are two very different things. Have you considered that which your wife wants is to simply spend more time with you?"

"_Honestly,_" spoke the masked voice. "_Sometimes I simply have no idea what she wants_."

"Sometimes the answer is simpler than you think," said Bellatrix. "I think she's already been loud and clear about what she wants: she wants you to spend less time at work and more time at home. You... wait... now I recognize that voice! Lucius, is that you?!"

"_... No?..._" sounded the masked voice, a touch of panic.

"In that case, there's a very simple solution to your problem," laughed Bellatrix. "Go up to your bedroom, give Cissy the night of her life and maybe finally give Draco that little sister he's been asking for since he was five."

"_I, uhm... good night_!"

Paul guffawed, doing her best to keep his laughter low enough not to be heard over the radio.

"Clear advice: always listen to your partner, my lovesomes. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you and I'm just here to help you see it. Before we leave you this evening, I'd like to take a moment to thank my audio engineer Paul Parkey. Tonight was his last night on the show, since he's leaving us to go back to his native United States home of New Orleans, Louisiana. Or, as I should I say it as the locals do: 'Norlins'," she let out a brief chuckle. "Quite sure I butchered that. We here at the Wizarding Wireless, and I'm sure all of our loyal listeners, would like to thank Paul for ten years of making my lovely voice sound as if I'm right there in the room with you."

Bellatrix read the card containing the titles of the last pieces of music of the day. "And so the night comes to a close, my lovesomes. So hold your lover tight if you have one, or hold onto your hopes and dreams if you don't. We will leave you with some music to make love by, from muggle music legend Johnny Cash, who walks the line through a ring of burning fire. A good and warm loving night to you all and be sure to tune in tomorrow evening for more Lonely Hearts At Night."

The moment the red light switched off and the music started playing, Bellatrix let out a sigh and threw off the headphones. Another show in the can, another evening done.

"Great show, dude," Paul told her, his one irritating habit of calling everyone he met 'dude' shining through. Though, she supposed to that his prerogative as an American. She and Paul chatted a bit before leaving and, as usual, she was the last one in the building as the Wizarding Wireless would automatically play music from 3 AM to the start of the first programme of the morning at 8 AM.

After tossing some floo powder into the central fireplace, she stepped through and emerged at her own home. Black manor, her ancestral home, which had come in her possession through inheritance.

When she had grown up here, it has been a vibrant and happy place full of life and joy. Now it was cold, empty and far too large for a single woman to live in. She barely made use of less than a fourth of the manor.

She waved a hand and fire burst to live in the fireplace. Her living room was quite nice, she supposed, with a lovely luxury chair in front of the fireplace, tasteful bookcases filled with books she never read and a classic old-time gramophone she never played. What did see a lot of use, however, was her whiskey cabinet.

She opened the cupboard and poured herself a glass before bed. The soothing liquid slid down her throat, burning slightly while giving her insides some much needed warmth.

It almost made up for coming home to an empty, cold house where nobody would come out to greet her to ask her how her day was, or cuddle up against her on the sofa after a hard day's work.

Almost.

What was even worse is that both her little sisters were married decades ago, both having adult or near-adult children, Andie having been particularly productive: five children and soon to be a grandmother. Bellatrix often joked that her sister might be having a friendly competition with Molly Weasley on who could produce the most offspring. And with any luck, Cissy and Lucius were working on a new child this very moment.

Bellatrix let out an indignant snort. The biggest irony of her life was that Bellatrix Black, the famous radio love doctor whom had helped so many a witch or wizard find their heart's desire, had been notoriously unlucky in love herself.

Oh, there's been flings, dates and all that good stuff, but nothing that ever went anywhere. Her loveless marriage to Rodolphus Lestrange might have been the start of some sort of cosmic curse. She'd married out of duty, but it didn't last long. Though it had given both her parents a heart-attack, literally in her father's case, she didn't know who was more relieved when she filed for divorce after barely a year of marriage: herself or Rodolphus. They'd parted amicably and sometimes had a chat and a drink together if they ever ran into each other at Diagon Alley.

For the last fifteen years, Bellatrix had been the host of Lonely Hearts At Night and the voice of late-night radio, if ratings were to be believed the most popular way of witches and wizards to spend the late evening. It had given her fame, it had added to her already significant wealth, but... it had never given her what she truly desired.

Judging from the sheer amount of fan-mail she received, her advice had had a very high success rate. Grateful listeners were always eager to send her photographs from their dates, their engagement or wedding and, in some cases, even pictures of their newborns. She used to be proud of that and dedicated the mansion's drawing room to create a large collage of moving pictures. Today, it was a room she would only visit when she was in a supremely good mood, otherwise she might just be tempted to tear them all off the wall and throw them all into the fireplace.

Her hand gripped around the empty whiskey glass.

It wasn't fair.

Why _them_?

Why them and not _her_?!

Accompanied by an ear-piercing shriek, the whiskey glass was sent crashing into the wall to shatter into a thousand pieces.

Her nails dug into the leather of the seat as she seethed with rage aimed at whatever cosmic force of karma had deemed to play this cruel joke on her. It took her a moment for her rage to subside... deep breaths... deep breaths...

Great... now she would have to fish countless shards of glass from the deep-pile carpet. What a fantastic ending of this already crap night.

She'd do it tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Or somewhere next week, certainly. Bellatrix had to go to bed early tonight, as she would have to interview an applicant for Paul's job tomorrow. Though the Wizarding Wireless worked by magic rather than electricity, the underlying technology was decidedly muggle and wizarding hosts were reliant on muggle-born or muggle audio engineers to actually run the back-end of the programmes. Such audio engineers were rare and in high demand.

The dark witch sighed: Paul had been a rare, rare breed. A muggle 'in the know' because of his wizarding relatives, who was willing to work seven days a week during night hours. It would be even harder to replace him because of the hours. Not only that, but she and Paul had been working like a well-oiled machine and struck up a friendship. Her parents would be rolling around in their graves if they knew she'd been associating with a muggle, but it had gone a long way in making her believe that not all muggles were bad, mucky people... only _most_ of them were.

Part of her just wanted to end the show, using Paul's departure as an excuse. Truth be told, she'd started to care less and less about the callers and their pathetic little lives. What did it all matter? The very show itself was a big detriment to her social life, as she slept most of the day and got up in the evenings to do prep-work and host the show from midnight to the witching hour.

Still, there was precious little else of her to do. She supposed she was condemned to Lonely Hearts At Night. "Hosted by Bellatrix Black, the loneliest heart of all. Good night, my lovesomes, why don't you all go FUCK YOURSELVES?!" Bellatrix shouted into the empty room.

All what was left to do was to stomp up to her overly large bedroom, toss her clothes, get into her cold and over-sized bed and try to sleep before the bitterness took too much hold of her to sleep at all.

The time of year didn't help much either and she geared herself to spend yet another Christmas by herself.

On her own.

With her whiskey cabinet.

Seriously, fuck love. Fuck everybody who was lucky enough to have it.

* * *

Bellatrix suppressed a yawn as she sat in the tea shop in Hogsmeade, having got up much earlier than she was used to. She made a mental note to have some serious words with the station's secretary not to plan in an appointment for someone from the night crew at the ungodly hour of 2 PM. As it stood, she had barely had enough time to get some breakfast and read the applicant's resume.

The applicant in question being one Hermione Granger. Younger than she'd expected. Fresh out of Hogwarts. Muggle-born. Impressive list of school grades, but she didn't really have much radio experience.

The girl sat opposite to her and was literally one twittery bundle of nerves. Bellatrix supposed that was fair enough, considering this was a job interview after all. The girl looked rather nice, despite her lack of nerves. Long brown hair, lovely brown eyes. Having just come in from the cold, she warmed her hands by holding the cup of tea she'd been offered. A woolly sweater covered most of her undoubtedly lovely figure, but considering the time of year Bellatrix couldn't fault her for her choice of clothing. The creamy white skin of her face was lit up by a lovely reddish blush from the cold. It suited her.

"So, miss Granger," Bellatrix started.

"Hermione, please," said the girl. For a moment, she wondering if the girl's teeth would start to chatter, and not from the cold. "I, uhm, I didn't think I'd actually do my interview with you personally."

"Hm," Bellatrix shrugged. "If you get the job, we'll be working closely together and thus I'd like to vet you personally. I'll be fair, you have big shoes to fill."

"If I do get the job, and I really hope I do," said Hermione. "I'll give it my utmost. I always do."

"Yes, I can tell by your grades," said Bellatrix. "It says here you spent a few years working in student radio? Could you tell me a bit about that?"

"Hm, yes," said Hermione. "It all started when my friend Katie had her accident. She was a chaser for the Quidditch team, you see? She had a sideways collision with a rogue bludger while she was doing a run towards the center goal hoops at full speed. Katie was thrown off her broom, fell thirty feet and crashed into the rafters. It ended her career overnight."

"Ouch," Bellatrix hissed. "She's lucky to be alive."

"She had learn how to walk again after her spinal injury," said Hermione. "But she still loved Quidditch and I decided to help her set up a small radio channel so she could do Quidditch commentary. For the students and people of Hogsmeade who couldn't attend the pitch, you see? The ball started rolling from there. More and more people wanted to join and we resurrected the Hogwarts Student Radio club. We had school news, music, homework help, discussion shows about all manner of topics. I, well, I wasn't on the radio myself, but I handled most of the back-end and did so for years. I'm... I'm hoping to make a career out of it."

"Hm," replied Bellatrix. "Believe it or not, but I got my own start in student radio myself. _Slytherin Soliloquy, by wizards for wizards_. Lonely Hearts At Night is basically a hobby that got out of control."

That was an understatement. Lonely Hearts At Night was a bit of self-therapy after her divorce. It had also helped that nobody else wanted the 12-3 PM radio slot at the time.

"I know," smiled Hermione. "I listen to Lonely Hearts regularly. So when I heard there was a job opening, I just had to reply."

Wait a minute.

Hang on.

That voice.

She had to dig in her memory a little. Over the past fifteen years of radio, she had heard many voices and some had stuck in her mind. So had this one.

"You are 'Frustrated Bookworm'!" Bellatrix snapped her fingers. "You called into the show a few times!"

Hermione seemed startled, sitting up a little straighter. "You remember!" she spoke with pleasant surprise, but quickly her mood changed into one of intense embarrassment. "Oh... you remember," she blushed slightly.

"So whatever happened to you and the lad you were pining for?" asked Bellatrix. "I seem to recall giving you some advice to make him notice you. Whatever happened?"

Hermione's lips formed a pouty line. "He never stopped eating enough to notice me, that's what happened."

"What about the other lad? The Quidditch player?"

"Too busy admiring himself in the mirror," Hermione shrugged. "Just as well, I suppose."

Bellatrix nodded in understanding. "Well," she said. "I have a high success rate, but my advice doesn't always work."

"It's not your fault," replied Hermione. "Sometimes boys' brains are just made out of pure granite."

There was bitterness in the girl's voice. Now that was something which Bellatrix understood. The dark witch took a sip from her tea, before getting back to the interview. "Back to the business at hand. I hope it's clear that this job entails working very late hours for seven days every week and that can have quite an impact on your life. If that's a problem, please say so now so we won't waste eachother's time."

"It's no problem at all," Hermione replied with a smile. "I'm a night-owl as it is."

"Good," replied Bellatrix. "Salary will be the standard night-hour fee with yearly increases based on performance. The show goes on hiatus for three weeks in the summer, one week in November and one week in March. Please plan any vacations accordingly. Any other free time will be given only in the most strict of emergencies. Show-business is a harsh mistress after all."

Hermione cocked her head sideways. "Does... does that mean I have the job?" she asked hopefully.

"You start tonight," said Bellatrix.

"Tonight?!"

"Is that a problem?"

"Oh no, not all," said Hermione with a smile so warm it could melt the polar icecaps. "It's just very sudden."

"Hm," said Bellatrix. "Paul stayed on as long as possible in order for me to find a replacement, but that took longer than expected."

"I understand," said Hermione. "I promise you, I won't let you down."

"Good," said Bellatrix. "Meet me at the station tonight at, let's say, nine in the evening?"

Hermione left the cafe absolutely overjoyed, but Bellatrix know that she was taking a big risk: Hermione had little experience and night work could be absolutely soul-killing. Still, if the girl's enthusiasm was anything to go by, there was a good chance that this could work out for the best. The dark witch finished her tea and then headed back home for a bit of a nap before work. Tonight would be interesting.

* * *

Prep-work for a three-hour radio show could take just as long as the show itself. Hermione had arrived exactly on time and the two of them started working on putting together the show for that evening.

Bellatrix could tell very quickly that Hermione would be a pleasure to work with: she was very professional for one so young and quite eager to please.

They started with picking the music for the day. Thankfully, Paul had left behind a sizable music collection to choose from. The music picked was based partly on requests which came in by owl post, popular tracks and some rarely played ones. Ideally, a three-hour show consisted of half a runtime of music and half a runtime of talking. Once the songs were selected, they picked a few owl posts to handle: not everyone dared to call in, so there was a mailbox for listeners to send requests for advice to.

They set time-stamps for every segment of the show, with some songs marked as 'pressure valves', meaning said songs could easily be scrapped if segments of the show were starting to run late.

Then, it was time for the usual sound checks and equipment calibrations. Though Hermione needed some time to familiarize herself with the equipment, she took to it quickly enough in a way that it rather impressed Bellatrix: the girl was doing her best to eliminate any potential form of disappointment. Which good, because Bellatrix would demand perfection from her.

During the show, it would be Hermione's job to screen the callers during the musical segments, as well as to provide the dark witch with enough honeyed tea to keep her voice at that throaty husk the listeners were expecting.

At midnight precise, the show started. In the beginning, Hermione fumbled a few times with the hand-signs and she didn't hand Bellatrix her cards quick enough either. But, those were just beginners' nerves and she got the hang of it soon enough. Bellatrix did her segments, gave advice and chatted into the night, while Hermione worked the equipment diligently and without any further error. The first posts were handled, the music went off without a hitch and the first callers got the answer they craved for.

By the time the second hour rolled by, Hermione was completely and utterly exhausted, but managed to hide it well. There was a bit of a breather for both of them during another musical segment. The younger witch took a cup of tea herself while screening a caller, talking over the floo-line while the voice of Meat Loaf sounded over the radio, crooning that he would do anything for love except for one certain thing which remained unspecified. Nearing the end of the song, she held up one finger, signifying that there was one caller on the line. After that, she raised three fingers and slowly counted down as the song winded down. With perfect timing, the red light turn on on the microphone.

"Hello again, my lovesomes," Bellatrix crooned into the microphone. "Oh, that song always gives me goosebumps. What would _you_ do for love, hm? How far would _you_ go? You're listening to Lonely Hearts At Night and as always, your host Bellatrix Black is here to help you find warmth to hold onto during these cold, cold December nights. We have a caller on the line..."

She read the card. "One 'Desperately-Seeking-Immortality'. Inauspicious name. Welcome to the show."

"_Ah, yes,_" sounded a somewhat lispy voice on the other end of the line. "_Finally. I do not appreciate being put on hold_."

"Name of the game, I'm afraid," said Bellatrix. "Surely you don't wish to interrupt the lovely music?"

"_Music is irrelevant_," spoke the lipsy voice. "_I'll keep this short and to the point. There's a lady who is in possession of a certain item. I want said item. How do I proceed_?"

"Uhm," Bellatrix blinked, looking over to Hermione who gave her a questioning look. "I'm not sure I follow."

"_It's a perfectly straight-forward question_," said the now increasingly irate lispy voice. "_How do convince this lady to love me so that she will give me the item?_"

By now, it was quite clear what this caller was after, so Bellatrix turned to Hermione and made a motion across her neck with the flat of her hand. Immediately, Hermione's fingers flew over the board and the lipsy voice fell silent.

"Right," started Bellatrix. "Sorry about that, my lovesomes, but we do not approve of gold diggers here or whatever it is the last caller was trying to do. Only real love is welcome here and if any of our lady-witches among our listeners are in possession of a rare item, be on the lookout for pushy blokes wanting to take it from you."

She looked over at Hermione, who shook her head. No more callers. Looking at the clock, there was still some time left.

"Right, now that we have that out of the way," she said, reaching for a stack of letters from the owl post. "We have a letter here from 'Raven-haired Slytherin Girl'. Hm, perfumed too. I like those kind of letters, my lovesomes. '_Dear Bellatrix. Please help me, I am at the end of my wits. There's a boy in my class I really like, but try as I might I cannot get him to notice me as anything more than a friend. I so wish us to be more than friends. Should I try a love potion? I mean, just for once, to get him to notice me. Just so that he can see me as more than a friend for just one evening and maybe get a sense for really liking it. Love the show and hope you can help me. Yours sincerely, Raven-haired Slytherin Girl_'."

Bellatrix let out a sigh. "Well, my lovesomes, it's time for us to have that talk again. That talk about using love potions. My answer is the same as it's always been. Don't. Just don't. You're betraying your partner to the core by taking his or her free will away and though it might seem like a good idea at the time, they will always, _always _resent you for it. As well they should. In love, there's no room for shortcuts. In love, there's..."

Bellatrix felt her eyes grow wet, her shoulders shake.

"... no substitute... "

Tears streaked over her cheeks as she fought to keep her voice from cracking. Hermione looked startled, about to rise from her seat until Bellatrix held her hand op, motioning for her to stay where she was.

"... for the real thing..." Bellatrix found her voice again and regained her composure.

"Raven-haired Slytherin Girl, don't even consider using a love potion or you'll slide down a slippery slope into a hole you'll never be able to crawl out of again. Don't do the easy thing. Dare to do the hard thing. Go to your friend and tell him how you feel about him. I know it'll be difficult. I know you'll be risking your friendship. But if he feels the same for you as you feel for him, it will be worth it."

Bellatrix took a few deep breaths. "The witching hour is upon us, my lovesomes and so is the end of today's show. But sure to tune in tomorrow evening at the stroke of midnight for more Lonely Hearts At Nights. For now, we will leave you with the soothing voice of Sinead O'Connor. Nothing compares to you, my lovesomes."

The moment the microphone light switched off and the song started playing, Bellatrix threw off her headphones and rushed into the small lounge next to the studio. She stomped towards the watercooler, poured herself a cup and downed it in one gulp, wishing it was whiskey instead of water. She leaned on the windowsill, looking at the forest outside and took a few deep breaths.

Hermione entered the room, standing next to her with eyes brimming with concern. "A-are you alright?" she asked softly.

Bellatrix pursed her lips. "I'm sorry you had to see that," she muttered, angry with herself. "That was very unprofessional of me."

Truth be told, she didn't know how much longer she could keep this up. All those people looking at her for advice for their love-lives. She, whom had no love-life to speak of. She felt like a fraud. She felt angry. She felt... alone.

"I'm sorry about the Immortality guy," Hermione muttered. "He seemed normal at first."

"Hah, they always do," snorted Bellatrix. "You'll get the hang of it. Don't worry about it. You did good tonight, Hermione. You did really good."

Hermione gave her a warm smile, but when looked at her feet, playing nervously with the hem of her sweater. "Uhm" she started. "I could use some advice myself. If... if you don't mind me asking."

Bellatrix chuckled. "Sure, why not?" she replied. Might as well help someone else find the love she didn't seem able to find herself.

The young woman let a hand run through her brown hair for a moment. "It's not for me, but for a friend of mine. You see, my friend... she wasn't very popular at school and, well, nobody really noticed her. The boys she was interested in didn't notice her. She didn't have many friends either. All the people around my friend got boyfriends or girlfriends and my friend was so lonely. My friend... would often cry herself to sleep in bed, wondering if she'd always feel so alone. But then... every night... there was this voice on the radio. It was the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. My friend would stay up late at night just to listen to that voice. She imagined that the voice was talking only to her. Only for her. It helped her deal with the loneliness."

Hermione's eyes were so watery now tears threatened to fall. "My friend fell in love with that voice. So deeply in love."

The young woman rested her arms on the windowsill, next to Bellatrix. "And... when my friend heard there was a job opening at the place where the woman the voice belonged to worked, she jumped at the opportunity. And to her joy, she was hired. When my friend met the woman with that lovely voice, she was even more beautiful than she ever could have imagined. So... yeah... my friend is deeply in love with her boss. What... what should she do?"

Bellatrix swallowed hard, her throat dry and her heart pounding in her chest. "T-tell your friend," Bellatrix started, her voice wavering. "That she should tell her boss how she feels about her. After what you've told me, I'm sure that... her boss would appreciate that very much. Then, you must tell your friend that she must let her boss take her out for dinner. Nothing special, just the two of them. Let them get to know each other better first and then take it from there and... just let it happen."

Tears were rolling over Hermione's cheeks now, a happy smile bringing out her lovely brown eyes. Her voice was tiny and full of hope when she spoke her next words. "W-will she?" Hermione asked carefully.

Bellatrix took Hermione's hand and squeezed tightly.

"She will."

* * *

Songs mentioned in the story, by order of appearance:

S.S.H. - I Wish

Johnny Cash – I Walk The Line

Johnny Cash – Ring Of Fire

Meat Loaf – I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)

Sinead O'Connor – Nothing Compares To You


End file.
